Carrion Crown

Paizo Adventure Path of the Same Name.

Casimir Kinslayer

Description:

Casimir is a Dhampir with grey eyes, black hair, and a brooding look about him. He wears laminated leather armor and carries a bardiche when he is out and about. For less adventurous times, such as drinking at a tavern or visiting the temple of Pharasma, he wears a falchion at his hip. Casimir is a loner by necessity and does not “warm up” to others very quickly. He has seen all those that he has known grow old and die or just die. He is 116 years old and has realized that if he is to find any companionship in his life it will have to be with someone who shares his long life. It is too painful to watch those few he has counted as friends grow old while he remains young.

Bio:

Casimir’s first memories are of a kindly woman feeding him at one of the orphanages in Caliphas. He has no earlier memories. He cannot remember anything regarding either of his parents nor can he remember anything regarding any other family except for a vague recollection of high arched ceilings and stairs leading upward. He was and is one of the many orphans of Caliphas.

Casimir is different. He has always known that he was different. Oh, he has heard all the stories. His father left his mother when she became pregnant. She died in child birth and the boy child was taken to the Home for the Lost here in Caliphas. He was used to being different.

To begin with he was pale in comparison to the other young boys. He was also stronger so the beatings stopped when he learned how to defend himself. He learned to be quite suspicious of the motives of others (Outcast’s Intuition, 1 sense motive, sense motive as a class skill). He was also dangerously curious about magic and things magical (1 Use Magic Device and it is a class skill). Danger seemed to follow in his footsteps. The sun hurt his eyse somewhat and his teeth were too long when he smiled. He learned very early to avoid smiling. It caused humans and elves to look at him with too much intensity. Not that he ever had much to smile about. By the time he was 15 years he was the strongest boy still at the orphanage (STR 19). The others avoided him. Except the girls. They seemed to be mesmerized by his good looks (CHA 17). They seemed to be drawn to him like a moth to a flame. He didn’t know what they wanted as first; but, his ignorance did not last long.

He spent much of his time in the streets. He dutifully completed his studies, learned to read, write, and the history of Ustalav (Knowledge History). He also learned of the horrors of Ustalav. He learned that he was one of those horrors. At least that was what the others all seemed to think. But, he never did anything to prove them right.

At night he would prowl the streets (Dark Vision). Roll the occasional drunk for any money or small items he could steal and sell or perchance keep. He was always in trouble with someone. He looked too good. He was different. The teen-aged girls were attracted to him; which netted him the anger and jealousy of his peers and those who were older than he.

When he reached the age of 16 he volunteered for the local militia. They outfitted him with some leather armor and trained him in how to use a pole arm. Pole arms were easier to use in a group than swords. The training took less time and a garrison could field several hundred men with spears in a short period of time. He didn’t stay too long with the local militia. After the first year he became proficient with other weapons and he yearned to see more of the world. Surely, there were places of wonder out there that he could find. With a set of worn leathers, a cheap short sword, and a backpack with the bare essentials he hired on as a caravan guard with a local merchant and he was off to see the world. He spent 5 years with the merchant’s house. Eventually he had to leave. He would find someone watching him and realize that he had smiled or had walked too easily down a dark street without stumbling and he would hear the word behind his back: Dhampir.

He spent many years wandering the roads of Ustalav (Knowledge Geography). He became quite good at defending himself and he learned the proper usage and care for all his weapons. When he was is in a city he would visit the temple of Pharasma always seeking some explanation as to what he was and how he came to be (Knowledge Religion). The priests in the first temple he approached were more worldly than those in many smaller towns. The High Priest of Pharasma in Caliphas actually befriended him after he assured himself that Casimir was not an evil creature planning on drinking the blood of every soul within the temple. He also had to assure himself that Casimir was actually a living being and not undead that his vows demand that he put to rest as part of his holy duty.

Casimir learned that he could be healed by negative energy and that positive healing energy had no effect. The High Priest also explained to Casimir that he would be resistant to diseases and mental influence because of his heritage. The one thing that Casimir could not learn was how he came to be. The High Priest of Pharasma speculated that his mother had probably died in childbirth because he had been left at an orphanage. However, there was no certainty on this matter. The High Priest also speculated that Casimir was either the son of a vampire human mating or that his mother had been bitten by a vampire while she was pregnant. At some point the High Priest gifted Casimir with a doll. “You’ll need this if you are to go adventuring, young man.”

Casimir developed an abiding hatred of the source of his difference from other men. He began an extensive study of the subject of the undead (Knowledge Undead). Every city he entered had a temple and he sought entrance and permission to study the tomes about the undead. It was during one of these sessions that he first met Professor Petros Lorrimor.

Casimir had been out of Ustalav for some time and had come back to his home country drawn by some unknown desire to the city of Ravengro. It was early in the professor’s career and the professor was studying at the temple of Pharasma and needed one of the works that Casimir was reading. They exchanged introductions and Casimir went about his business.

Ten years later Casimir was on the roadway between Illmarsh and Hyannis when he came upon a carriage that had lost a wheel in the evening. The sun had set. A mob of undead creatures threatened the two surviving occupants of the carriage. One was the professor and the other a guard hired as part of an escort. Casimir quickly recognized the creatures as orc zombies. He knew that there was a cairn nearby from which these creatures must have emerged drawn by the sounds of the work on the wheel. Maybe they had been roused by someone disturbing the site. Casimir ran into the fray swinging a bardiche and destroyed one of the zombies in his charge. The others tried to circle him but as one would lunge in toward him, he would swing his weapon and another zombie would fall (Combat Reflexes, Reach Weapon). They finally withdrew when half their number lay dismembered on the ground. After making sure that carriage occupants were able to take care of themselves, Casimir pursued the remaining zombies to their burial mound. Again and again a zombie would lunge in toward the fighter, and each time one did, Casimir’s weapon would bite deeply into its rotting corpse sending it into oblivion.

Upon returning to the carriage, Professor Lorrimor was quite effusive in his thanks and requested that Casimir assist them in returning to Hyannis where a new carriage could be hired. Casimir found himself a hired guard and an expert on the undead for the Professor’s explorations for the next few years. They parted company on good terms.

Casimir had recently received a notice of Professor Lorrimor’s death and that there would be a reading of a will. Casimir was saddened by the passing of a person who had treated him with respect and not suspicion; but, he was used to the ephemeral passing of humanity. All of the children he had grown up with and the adults who ran the Home for the Lost in Caliphas had long since died. Casimir had lost track of how old he was. Was it 114 or 115 or was it more… His life was a lonely one, lacking direction, real goals, and companionship.

Casimir is a creature in balance; neither good nor evil, neither lawful nor chaotic. He is a clean slate. His fate is yet to be determined. His beginnings in this life were not auspicious and he suffered greatly at the hands of humans. However, he knows that those who made him suffer are long since dead and he lives on. Why? What purpose does he serve? A shunned creature touched by the undeath. Well, he knows that he has one purpose; he will put down undead and maybe one day find the one that created him so and put him to his final rest – a fitting gift from a long abandoned “son!”